Encouraging words seem harder to find about retail than about any other property sector these days, and the analysts at RREEF Research would hardly be mistaken for Pollyannas. Nevertheless, a new forecast from the Deutsche Bank affiliate finds reasons to sound a few modestly upbeat notes. “Good news does exist for the retail sector,” RREEF [...]

A few positive economic signs—including February increases in housing starts and new home sales, along with orders for durable goods—offer hope that the deepening of the recession may be slowing. Even February retail sales declined just 0.1 percent from January sales, which was less than expected. And with less federal income tax being taken from [...]

Downtown New York received some positive news last week, as Vantone Industrial Co. signed a lease for 190,800 square feet at One World Trade Center, formerly known as Freedom Tower. The space will be home to China Center, a business and cultural center. But that sliver of good news may mask some deeper problems at [...]

Recently, attention has been focused on Manhattan, as the financial crisis gripping much of the country continues to hollow out its largest office market. But New York is not alone in what is now a global recession. Other leading financial centers–including London, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore–have all taken a very big step [...]

With at least 36 states anticipating local, regional or statewide water shortages by 2013, the potential for water reuse is rising in importance. Indeed, population growth and climate change are only likely to exacerbate the problem. To that end, Central City Concern, a Portland, Ore.-based non-profit affordable housing provider, in March released a study targeted [...]

Given the current state of the debt markets, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are widely perceived to be the only two viable sources of debt financing for multi-family rental assets. While these two government agencies continue to be the primary sources of financing for these assets, there are a variety of alternative lenders and capital [...]

When President Obama travels to Mexico next month to meet his counterpart, Felipe Calderon, a trade dispute between the neighbors could be on the agenda. At issue is a controversial pilot program permitting Mexican truckers to bring goods into the United States. Part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the program expired this month [...]

Free trade enables economies to realize their greatest potential, but heads of state are not taking this long view when establishing protectionist measures in response to the current downturn. Industrial real estate companies are keeping a close watch because global trade levels and demand for distribution facilities are highly correlated, as I have explored in [...]

With hotel fundamentals in a nosedive due to the recession, many hotel companies’ finances are coming under stress. But Marriott International Inc. recently put its strong balance sheet to work on a deal that seems to have a lot of upside for the hotel giant.Marriott is setting out to save one of America’s signature resorts, [...]

While liquidity is virtually unavailable for big-ticket hotel investment sales, investors are eager for select-service properties and pockets of financing are available for hotels trading under $15 million. But competition is tight, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ recently conducted biannual U.S. Select Service Hotel Investor Survey, which revealed that hungry buyers now outnumber sellers [...]